A study led by researchers from the Department of Pediatrics, Hutzel Hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and Wayne State University was conducted to determine the mortality rate during the first two years of life in infants who were exposes to various drugs.   These children were exposes to cocaine, opiates, and cannabinoids during gestation.

Researchers conducted this experiment over an 11 month period in which a large group of infants were enrolled and screened at birth by meconium analysis.  Death outcome, within the first 2 years after birth, was determined in this group of infants using the death registry of the Michigan Department of Public Health.  A total of 2,964 infants were studied for drug exposure at birth.

Upon birth 44% of the newborn infants tested positive for drugs, 30.5% positive for cocaine, 20.2% for opiate, and 11.4% for cannabinoids.  These infants were tested against a drug negative control group to analyze for apparent physical changes as well.  Researchers found that drug positive infants had a lower birth weight and a smaller head circumference at birth.  Within the first 2 years of life, 44 infants died, yet 26 of them were drug negative.  The mortality rates among cocaine, opiate, or cannabinoid positive infants were 17.7, 18.4, and 8.9 per 1000 live births, respectively.  Eleven infants died from the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); 58% were positive for drugs, predominantly cocaine.

From this study we can conclude that prenatal drug exposure in infants, although associated with a high perinatal morbidity, is not associated with an overall increase in their mortality rate or incidence of SIDS during the first 2 years of life. However, a significantly higher mortality rate was observed among low birth weight infants who were positive for both cocaine and opiate.